Clean Energy Fuels Corp., co-founded by billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, hopes to turn a profit this year as bus and truck fleets buy more clean-energy vehicles, according to an article in The L.A. Times.

By 2016, the U.S. will be close to a crude-oil production record of 9.6 million barrels a day, the Energy Information Administration said Monday in a preview of its annual outlook.

That record was set in 1970. Oil production is then expected to level off and slowly decline after 2020, the EIA added.

Natural-gas production, however, was seen as growing steadily, with a 56% increase between 2012 and 2040, when production will reach 37.6 trillion cubic feet. Natural gas will overtake coal as the main fuel for U.S. electricity generation by 2040.

A slow-moving storm dishing out snow in parts of the Midwest, freezing rain in Texas and other Southern states, and heaps of wintry weather and frigid temperatures in several other states is keeping natural-gas futures at their highest prices in months.

The commodity rallied on Thursday, settling at a six-month high, helped by the weather forecast and news that supplies had dropped more than analysts expected. Prices were up 1.2% in recent action, compared with middling gains for crude oil and other energy futures.

A third of U.S. homes use natural gas for heating — and this weekend most of their furnaces and heaters will likely be working overtime. The bitter cold, snow and the sleet and freezing rain mix will continue through the evening and into the weekend in some cases, the National Weather Service said.

Big Oil is straying from conservative orthodoxy and making long-term financial plans under the assumption the government will force them to pay a price for carbon pollution as a way to control global warming — and Exxon Mobil Corp. is better prepared than others to face the new expense.

Exxon, through its 2010 acquisition of XTO Energy, is the U.S.’s largest natural gas producer, and natural gas creates less carbon pollution than oil or coal. It would “stand to profit in a future in which a price is placed on carbon emissions,” the newspaper said.

U.S. families will continue to pay less for gasoline but most will spend more on heating this winter, the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.

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The EIA forecast retail gasoline to average $3.24 a gallon in the fourth quarter, 10 cents less than what it had predicted last month.

Gasoline prices are seen averaging $3.50 a gallon this year and $3.39 a gallon in 2014, compared with $3.63 a gallon last year.

The EIA also released a winter fuel expenses outlook. With heating, it will depend on which fuel is used. The EIA forecast families using natural gas and electricity to heat their homes will pay more this year, while those using heating oil will see small savings.

The Northeast is increasingly relying on natural gas to generate electricity, raising concerns there might not be enough pipeline capacity to take to market all the gas the nation’s most densely populated region needs, the Energy Information Administration said Tuesday.

Lower natural-gas prices and regional environmental initiatives have pushed natural-gas use in power generation to just below 50% in 2013, from just under 20% in 2001.

The problem is that the area also relies on natural gas for part of its heating needs, and has limited pipeline capacity to bring the gas to market, the EIA said.

Shares of Consol Energy Inc. fell as much as 4% in early trading Monday following news it will sell five coal mines to focus on natural gas, but investors reconsidered their negative reaction and shares were recently off 0.5%.

Murray will pay $850 million in cash and also assume about $2.4 billion in labor and environmental liabilities. Consol will also receive about $184 million in future royalty payments for shipping the coal out of a terminal in Baltimore.

The mines are estimated to hold about $1.1 billion in coal reserves. Consol hopes to to save about $65 million a year in administrative costs.

But perhaps more irking for shareholders, dividends will be reduced by half to “reflect the company’s increased emphasis on growth.”

The U.S. natural-gas boom will trigger a “sea change” in prices and flows of the fuel, an oil and natural gas analytics firm said Tuesday.

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Thanks to the boom, fueled by shale exploration, the northeast will switch to a net supply region from the U.S.’s largest demand region, and the southeast will become a larger net demand region after being a major supplier to the natural-gas market, said Bentek, a unit of energy data and news provider Platts.

More than one third of the U.S. natural gas production increase expected between 2013 to 2033 — some 9.1 billion cubic feet per day — will come from the Utica and Marcellus shale formations in the northeast, Bentek said.

About Energy Ticker

Energy Ticker is MarketWatch’s blog about the energy industry and investing in energy companies. It’s meant to serve as a guide for investors looking for the newest, most important and market moving news and information on the industry. Hosted by lead writer and veteran reporter Claudia Assis, Energy Ticker hopes to be the essential guide for those interested in the global business of powering our planet.